In modern processors and other semiconductor devices, it is known that as the product ages, certain degradations become manifest. Several different phenomena can cause degradation to a semiconductor device, for example, hot-carrier injection, bias temperature instability, oxide breakdown (also known as time dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB)), electro-migration and more. Each of these degradation mechanisms occurs due to various factors like temperature, voltage, current and others, where temperature and voltage impact the degradation exponentially.
Accordingly, the probability of failure of a semiconductor device is a function of various run time parameters, its actual time and use and other utilization measures. It is difficult for consumers of such semiconductor devices, whether in the form of processors or other integrated circuits, to determine a product's probability of failure and take appropriate action, given that such information is generally not available whatsoever, and typically is in no way available to interested parties, such as end users, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), information technology (IT) personnel and so forth.